Milito was stretchered off in tears after just six minutes, as he caught his studs in the turf and badly turned his left knee.

“Unfortunately, this injury rather ruined the night. It is a lesion to the anterior cruciate ligament, damage to the collateral ligament and capsule. It is a terrible injury and totally new compared to the problems he had in the past,” the Coach told Mediaset.

“There’s a one per cent chance of this happening, but it happened to Diego. We now just need to know when he’ll have the operation. It’s awful news, as we all care for him as a person as well as a player. I am personally very close to him and feel so sad right now.”

As for the game, Inter secured a 2-0 first leg victory over CFRCluj in the Europa League Round of 32 with Rodrigo Palacio coming off the bench to bag a brace.

Mateo Kovacic had his first start as the deepest point of a diamond midfield.

“Playing with this new system it gives us great quality and Palacio was the only real striker in the box. Rodrigo played more than the others and we had planned to rest him, but Milito got this injury after just a few minutes, so he was needed.

“Kovacic is clearly a player with great quality and everyone can see why we invested in him. He immediately realised what I wanted from him, to be a deep-lying playmaker. He is a humble lad and it’s up to me to help him settle.

“We can play with different systems, but I think we played very well today. I think with hard work we are taking steps forward and must continue. There is a very tough game in Florence and we’ll face it openly. We must play as Inter with an attacking an open approach in any arena.”